Dr Devy spoke on how languages have suffered and even become extinct in some countries. "India is a rare example of a country that did not lose its linguistic diversity despite a Colonial experience," he said.

"In an age where 35% of the world's eight billion people are migrants of some sort, the individual question of language identity becomes as important as the collective question of national identity," he added.

Dr Devy made a strong case for using translation as a practice to bridge the gap between "the language of knowledge" and the "languages of everyday lived realities."

Recounting her experience as a doctor, Dr Poornima Baliga, Pro Chancellor of Manipal University, reiterated the need for multilingualism as a way to connect with people and extended the university's support to the CLIL@India project that will open similar research and training centres this week in Pune, Chandigarh and Puducherry co-funded by the Erasmus programme of the European Union.

Prof Neeta Inamdar, principal coordinator of the project, said, "All the centres will make a concerted effort to build school students proficient in two languages, with emphasis on the mother tongue. The effort is to make multilingualism in India more meaningful by enhancing the proficiency of the languages thus acquired."

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